Very individualized decison process. For us I tried a little of all the methods and tried to observe what my son was more successful in---- and what stuck with him. For us I think ABA is the best. Just in 30 minmutes of ABA he make really great improvements.
I still use a lot of Grennspan's ideas. I think Verbal behavior therpay may have been better if he was mildly Autistic and verbal.
BUT then do you have afforable ABA or VBA programs? If you the parent are providing therpay can you emotionaly handle it? Not all public school programs offer the amount of therpay and the best therapy your child needs -- so it comes out of the parents pocket. Alot of times Autisic children need 1:1 therpay many hours of the day.
I hope you find the right fit.
I think that the type of therapies that you may access through your EI may
Well, first you are bound by what is available. And what is offered by your district, according to your child's evaluation. We went with what was offered fist thing.
Then, I got on the internet and the best resource was parent forums, like this. (So, IMO, you're right on target.) I read all of the threads about various approaches. I read all of the "argument" threads becasue I learned (and still do learn) a lot from those. For instance, I learned that ABA is not the "gold standard," but is simply measurable and the results are obvious. A lot of people know it and it's the known choice, but not the "best." "Best" depends on what you value for your child. There are a number of "best" choices and you can only make those choices by doing a lot of reading, then thinking about what fits best with your family.
It's a process that took us about a year to find a groove with. We were offered an autism program that we happen to really love for our son. Not everyone loves their options, so they go looking for other approaches. some you can learn about online and do with your child. Others, you hire consultants to teach you. Others, you hire therapists to do with your child. Most people feel their way along and change therapies along the way, finding the right fit.
There is so much available now. For us, I knew that ABA was not going to work. We are a close, hang out together kind of family and my highest value for my children is that they understand people and enjoy them. My youngest (ASD) son always was fine with people but just didn't understand how to "do people." So we, over the course of a year, found RDI and it really spoke to us and the way our family is together. We would not have been OK with a therapist coming in and doing ABA trials with Alex. We have a therapist who happens to be very interested in RDI and she is doing her therapy with him based on that. And we incorporate RDI into most all of our daily life, as a family. That is working great for us and Alex is happy, progressing beautifully, enjoying life.
I'm a big "gut feeling" kind of person and that has been a big part of why we've chosen the places, people and approaches we have. Some people love ABA and their ABA therapists and that is great. You know when your kid is happy and responding and learning.
I can't rave highly enough about participating in parent forums online. I've learned so, so much and after a year and a half of participation, I can honestly say there is more knowledge and wisdom in these forums than you will find anywhere in the medical, therapist or teaching communities. Not that teachers, etc. don't know anything, but that the pool of knowledge and experience here far surpasses any other resource.
I can only speak from my own experience, but it is fresh because we were diagnosed just 3 1/2 weeks ago. I did what you are doing, research. I tried to really pay attention to his existing ST and OT and see when he was learning the best. It was obvious to us that floortime with some ABA was the way to go. Our EI pretty much took it from there. They scheduled appts with all the floortime companies in the area, I then interviewed them all. I just picked ont this last week and they will begin next week. My EI covers all of it though. With an ASD DX they cover up to 35 hours of therapy where I live. It is all in home, and I got to schedule it. I have no out of pocket cost.
I have learned that most DR's and Neuro's in particular prefer ABA becsuse it is scientific and measurable. I just know my son, and really knew that strictly ABA would not work for him. I also plan on starting RDI on my own.
When it mattered, I was in denial about autism so the school system made the therapuetic decisions for me. When I finally accepted their autism diagnosis and learned enough about therapies to make a choice, they were too old to fit in well with the programs that I decided they'd most benefit from! It's good that you;re starting young :)
I think all of the therapies will help your child gain skills that they need to function better in school and to encourage their social and langauge development. ABA clearly has the most formal research supporting it, but the research isn't as completely solid and settled as some imply, and even though the other therapies lack a lot of formal research, I have no doubt that they work just as well.
In my opinion, the therapist is more important than the therapy. It is all just teaching, after all, so assessing your childs strengths and weaknesses and following some reasonable curriculum designed to teach your child skills to compensate for his greatest areas of need is what's important, moreso than the specific nuts-and-bolts teaching method. If he's learning, than it's working.
I would visit the programs and speak with the therapists and make a decision for practical reasons (cost, location, etc.) and from how well thought out the curriculum is and how experienced the therapists are, and how you personally feel about them after speaking with them.
JMHO.
We just received a provisional autism diagnosis for Jadon a couple weeks ago and I have been overwhelmed trying to learn about all the different therapies and philosophies of therapies out there. He has already been doing speech therapy and OT, but I want to get him involved in some more autism-specific intensive therapy as soon as possible.